Here’s an example of one comparing London to Paris (click on the infographic to see the full version):

There are plenty of situations where you can use this style. If you are a marketer, journalist or content writer, these 3 ideas will get you thinking about how you can apply it to your work.

If your strategy has changed in any way, you could do a ‘What We Did Back Then vs. What We Do Now’. For instance, if you redesigned your landing page and increased conversion, you could show your team or leadership what happened using a side by side comparison.

Comparisons are great when people need to quickly grasp new concepts – for instance, during leadership training, you could compare two styles of leaderships like ‘being a boss’ vs ‘being an inspiring leader’.

You could use a ‘versus’ infographic to sell your unique value proposition, and contrast it against the competition. If you are an HR services company pitching your idea to a potential client, you could compare doing HR in house vs outsourcing it, by highlighting its benefits in an infographic.

Also, if you’re a teacher, a comparison infographic can be an innovative way to educate students. For instance:

You could compare two historical figures or book characters, like Napoleon vs. Alexander The Great.

When teaching a language class, you could compare two different language structures. For instance, English grammar vs. Spanish grammar.

If it’s an art class, a great idea is comparing two styles of painting – impressionism vs. expressionism.

It could even be a cool assignment to have students create their own comparison infographics!

How to Build a Successful Comparison/Versus Infographic

Now that we know when a comparison infographic is effective, it’s time we learn how to design one from scratch.

To start, there are two main aspects when planning a comparison infographic. One is preparing the correct data, and the second one is thinking of the design aspects that will help you visualize the comparison.

Have your Data Ready

As with every type of infographic, you will need to do some prep work, and have your data in advance before moving on to design.

Start by doing some Google research on the two different topics you are comparing. Read articles and books, check out other infographics, or interview experts. Afterwards, you should:

Make sure you are comparing apples with apples and oranges with oranges. Make sure you use the same metrics and type of data between the two topics (i.e. percentages with percentages, numbers with numbers and facts with facts).

Crew Sweater J Boutique Pullover J Boutique J Pullover Sweater Boutique Crew Crew Pullover Sweater This process is the foundation of your design. If you don’t take the time to go through it and verify consistency, your infographic will be noisy, cluttered and unclear.

Let’s take a quick look at this infographic comparing the number of restaurants in two major cities – Paris and London. First, you should note that it’s comparing similarly sized cities, not Paris vs. Nantes. Second, it’s comparing apples to apples – the number of Michelin starred restaurants and the total number of restaurants.

The second example compares an interview at Facebook vs. an interview at Google, and puts emphasis on two main points: what not to say, and which famous celebrities visited their campus.

Once you’ve chosen your data, it’s time to move on to the design. Piktochart has very useful templates for comparison infographics. Login to your Piktochart account, and once you start searching for a template, type queries like:

3 – Create a clear division using two different colors. In order to keep it clean and minimalistic, you can choose darker or lighter shades of color. In our template, we used two different shades of blue, but you can also use two contrasting colors, like tones of red and blue. If you aren’t sure which colors to pick, this post might guide youCrew Crew Boutique Boutique Sweater Boutique Sweater Pullover Crew Pullover Pullover J J Sweater J !

4 – Always stayconsistent using the same kind of elements. We’ve covered this in the past, but look at the example below: the first version shows the correct usage of the same fonts and same style icons, while in the second one we chose different fonts and inconsistent icons. The difference is subtle yet meaningful. One is simple, clean and pleasing, and the other one looks messy.

Two quick Pikto tips: First, icons that share the same style are usually grouped together under categories. Second, use the same Text Frame for each side, this way you’ll make sure your design stays consistent

5 – Finally, use the same structure for side by side comparisons for titles, icons, text, etc. When comparing apple with apples, it’s important to keep the consistency between both sides to demonstrate that it’s a comparison. The example below is a perfect portrayal.

Time To Make Your Own!Now that you’re somewhat of an expert in comparison infographic making, it’s time to create your own. Our designers have created a handful of comparison infographic templates that could be a fit for whatever subjects you plan on pitting against each other.